Xenatec is using the Geneva Motor Show to unveil its one-off Cruiserio Coupe, a customer-ordered hyper-luxury car based on the Maybach 57S. The coupe was designed by Fredrik Burchhardt to a customer's exact specs, then hand-built by the Xenatec team.
Visit: car shipping | car craze
We've heard rumblings of a more-powerful XKR. We saw spy shots of the rumored two-door as it blew through the English countryside wearing a dash of camouflage. And now it's official: Jaguar is bringing a more powerful XKR to the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, and goes by the name XKR-S.
I did not realize that 1/3 of our corn production is going into ethanol. And that is at an average mix of only about 10% (since E85 is not widely available and consumed)Third, the US ethanol subsidy diverted more than 100 million metric tons of corn into ethanol last year. This did little to reduce global warming, and made basic grains and meat more expensive for most people in the world. Nearly a third of US corn is now used for fuel. If the Senate lowered the US deficit by reducing the tax break on ethanol, corn prices would drop and China's increased consumption would easily be accommodated. Since there was a recent decision to increase the amount of ethanol in gasoline, this problem will likely intensify. A move to cellulose-based ethanol would be helpful. Land released from corn could be used for soybeans and reduce prices for several crops.
Niche manufacturers rarely offer more than one model line. In Wiesmann's case, that line consists of the GT, with its various BMW-sourced propulsion options, and its Roadster counterpart. Like the German car maker Gumpert, Wiesmann will move into Geneva with the the Weismann Spyder, a new model for our consideration.
Motor Trend may prefer the Chevrolet Volt, but the well-heeled readers of the Robb Report have a considerably different set of priorities when it comes to picking the best of the best. That's why the luxury magazine has decided to name the Ferrari 458 Italia as its Car of the Year.
The 458 scores high marks for its exterior design, interior materials and overall performance, and the Prancing Horse beat out thirteen other vehicles for the award. The stunning Italian sports car topped the Audi R8 V10 Spyder, Porsche 911 Turbo S, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG, Bentley Mulsanne, Maserati GranTurismo Convertible, Audi A8L, Aston Martin Rapide, BMW Alpina B7, Rolls-Royce Ghost, Jaguar XJ Supersport, Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, and Lotus Evora.
Porsche is planning to double its sales to about 200,000 per year with the help of more money and manpower. The German automaker is planning to hire 1,000 employees in which half of them will be building the company's forthcoming small crossover under the working name 'Cajun,' while the other half will be developing new vehicles. If the sales target are met, they would add another 500 employees by 2018.
Porsche would also expand its lineup from four to seven models to reach its sales goals, while also forking over up to 750 million Euro to upgrade its Leipzig factory. The latter is believed to be the main candidate to build the Cajun when production begins in 2013.
The Volkswagen Group wants to reach the number one in global sales and profits. In order to achieve it, Volkswagen has to increase its production of Audi. Audi has been struggling to meet the demand for A3 and A6 and hence buyers have been waiting for 3 to 4 months to take delivery.
Though the waiting times are longer, car buyers are not willing to leave Audi and choose BMW and Mercedes-Benz. All these three automakers have reported record sales in January and the waiting times are much longer for vehicles like BMW X3.
While all these three auto makers are struggling to meet the demand, Audi is in the toughest spot with wait times up to 2 months longer than its competitors. Since Audi contributes 47 percent of VW's profits, Volkswagen group should address this problem in a timely manner.
The new 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 holds a 6.4-liter HEMI V8 putting out 465 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque will find a welcome bay in the garages, and this Charger is no exception. The five-speed automatic is a bit of a disappointment in this day and age, but something tells us a few 12-second trips down the good ol' 1320 ought to ease that bit of pain, as would an autobahn blast at the Charger SRT8's 175 miles per hour top speed.
Vehicle testing using a defective potentiometer accelerator pedal assembly from a VOQ vehicle with a resistive short, within a narrow range of values between the sensors outputs, identified a vulnerability that may compromise nominal limp home mode fail-safe operation on subsequent ignition key cycles and affect the malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) display and/or DTC generation under certain specific conditions. Destructive physical analysis of this pedal assembly found tin whiskers, one of which had formed the resistive partial short circuit between the pedal signal outputs. A second tin whisker of similar length was also found in this pedal assembly that had not caused an electrical short. If a resistive short between the potentiometer accelerator pedal signal outputs exists, the system may be vulnerable to a specific second fault condition that could theoretically lead to UA.However, if resistive faults were occurring during normal use, DTCs would be expected from at least the first ignition key cycle and the following cycles that did not meet the specific criteria. Subsequent review of the warranty data does not support an observable failure signature of pedal-induced DTCs. Electrical measurements on six VOQ vehicles found no indication of the resistive paths necessary for this failure scenario.
Toyota has already began to make sales predictions for the year 2020. The automaker is confident that Prius will continue its spot as Japan's best-selling model. However it seems that that the exceptional sales volume of Prius may drive Toyota to drop its price.
Japanese car buyers consider the mainstream Prius as a "friendly" model and not a "leading edge" vehicle. This "friendly" image pits the Prius in direct competition with vehicles such as the bargain-priced, subcompact Honda Fit. Kitagawa, who polled 1,972 Japanese car owners, tells this, "As the Prius becomes more of a mass-market car, it may be time to think about lowering the price."
Gas-electric Prius are not sought by tech-savvy Japanese buyers but now it's the mainstream model, Kitigawa argues, that the cutting-edge appeal, which commanded a premium price has faded away.
